Dear fosters,
First of all, THANK YOU for opening your home, heart and time up for one of our orphans. We can’t begin to express enough gratitude to you. What you have agreed to do is essentially help prepare someone’s new dog for them and its a wonderfully amazing thing to offer!
When you arrive to pickup your puppy, you should receive food, a crate if you need one, and some documentation indicating when your dog is due for shots, a spay and neuter date if that hasn’t been done yet, due dates for heartworm and flea and tick prevention, and dewormer dates. We don’t typically fix our puppies until they are 4 months of age or unless a later date is indicated by the veterinarian.
Every dog is different in how it integrates into a new home or foster home. Always provide less freedom initially for several days/weeks. It’s best to learn the dog before too much space and too many decisions are made by the dog or puppy in order to eliminate the potential for accidents or destructive behavior. Integrating a crate is strongly advised for most of our dogs.
Please don’t leave our dogs unattended outside even if your yard is fenced until you’ve had them for several days. Dogs in new environments and dogs who get bored or are overly curious do things you wouldn’t expect like jump, climb and dig under fences. Please don’t allow the dog to roam freely without boundaries as we don’t know if the dog we are giving you is off-leash trained.
Please don’t feed anything but what we supply until the dog has integrated into your home. Please don’t change the food or add things to it unless advised as this can create diarrhea. In addition to this, moving environments can be stressful and we want to be sure that if your dog develops diarrhea, we have the least number of variables to determine the cause.
Our organization has a strong foundation of followers many of which have joined a Facebook group called H2H Foster Friends and we encourage you to join as well. You can always ask any questions there and get some good advice pretty quickly. We do our best to get to emails ASAP but that is always our slowest line of communication. If you need something immediate, you can always text Kristen at 314-315-1240 or Kay Lynn at 636-393-2084.
Please always be sure that anyone meeting your foster dog has been approved before setting that meeting up. We use social media to post our dogs. If you publicize that you are the dogs foster mom, you may have members of the public contacting you via Facebook. We provide your phone number to the potential adopter after we screen them so anyone contacting you via social media has likely not been approved to adopt.
Please update us with any information that you feel will be especially helpful for us to know when trying to help find the right fit for your dog. If you learn something unique or special or any relevant information that a new adopter might be interested in knowing, please update us when you send in pictures so we can matchmake appropriately.
Please read the below frequently asked questions!
Where should I meet potential adopters?
We leave this up to you. Some fosters want to have the adopters come to their homes, some fosters want to go to the new potential adopters homes, and some want to meet in a neutral place like a park or a coffee shop. Whatever you decide is fair game.
What do I do if I meet an adopter and I don’t feel they are a good fit?
Please be fair here. Everyone we are screening has been approved based on a video of their home and a good history of vet care and an application that we feel could satisfy your foster dog. If you meet someone and don’t feel they are a good or healthy home, we need to know this immediately. If you meet more than one person for the same dog and both families want the dog, you need to weigh in immediately and give us your opinion. We value your opinion but once an adoption link is sent to a family, its tough to tell them they can’t have the dog.
I have fallen in love with my foster dog. Now what?
Once you have begun sending photos of your foster dog to our social media team member, we have begun marketing your dog to try and find its perfect new home. Fosters always have the right to adopt but making that decision needs to be considered prior to adopters reaching out. If you make the decision after your foster dog has attracted someones attention and they want to meet, you will be required to schedule that meeting. If that adopter doesn’t wish to proceed, you’re welcome to adopt! Prior to any communication with potential adopters, you have all the rights to adopting your foster dog.
Do you offer adoption fee discounts to fosters?
While we appreciate all your assistance, we charge adoption fees for our dogs so that we can continue providing life-saving assistance to the next dog in need. We don’t provide discounts unless there is an extreme situation warranting an exception.
How is the pass-off of my foster dog to new adopter to be handled?
All fosters are required to meet the new adopters at our facility during our lobby hours. Lobby hours are Monday thru Friday 6-9AM and Saturdays and Sundays 2-4PM. Please note that the weekends are very busy for viewing dogs and finalizing adoptions can take more time on those days as we service everyone first come, first served. We generally always inform the new owner of this but they will be required to bring a leash, collar and engraved name tag with the dogs name, phone number and address on it at the time of pickup. If you are bringing your foster dog to meet their new home, you are also always welcome to pick out a new foster dog at that time!
You have received documents that have dates for when your puppy is due for meds and vaccines. Please be sure to stay on top of those things to keep your puppy as healthy as possible.
If you borrow a crate or have extra food leftover at the time your foster is adopted, please be sure to bring that with you to return to us. We do not provide crates to new adopters. Working with limited funding means every crate that isn’t returned and every $35-60 bag of dog food that isn’t returned creates a loss for H2H. We value our things and ask that you please bring them back so we can use them for the next dog.
As always, it means so much to us to have your assistance. If you have a concern about your foster puppy, please reach out to us immediately so we can address it. Time is of the essence with the puppies and we have to be able to address things in a very timely fashion.
Feel free to stay connected with the new adoptive family of your foster dog if you wish. We expect you’ll want updates but promise to share them with us if you get them!
Welcome to our H2H family! We can’t wait to see your foster dog in its new surroundings enjoying life! THANK YOU!!!